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Giving Thanks

For several years, we have enjoyed sharing Thanksgiving Day at our home with local relatives, CSOM graduate students, their families or guests, and a few local MBA alumni who keep returning each year.

Typically, there were 40-55 attendees from 10-12 countries, most of whom had never experienced Thanksgiving. Of course, we feasted on traditional turkey dinners with all of the trimmings. But Thanksgiving is much more than a meal and each year we’ve worked together with the attendees to create the true spirit of the holiday by expressing gratitude for our many blessings, sharing our good fortune with others, and strengthening bonds with friends from throughout the world while playing games, walking in the woods, telling stories about our countries, and otherwise socializing.

Imagine how disappointed we were this year when we thought we would have to cancel the event because hurricane Sandy damaged our home three weeks before Thanksgiving. But CSOM's Dean Ringuest and his staff, notably Maryellen Jordan and Karen Rubin, and Mike Kann of Boston College Dining Services came to our rescue by generously arranging for us to host the event on campus.

Mike and his staff served an amazing traditional Thanksgiving meal in a room they had reserved for us, including delicious turkey, stuffing, roast beef, fish, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green beans, salads, scrumptious desserts and much more. Over dinner conversations with friends from several countries, we began to feel the chemistry take hold that had made the day so special in the past. This feeling continued to solidify as we walked around the Chestnut Hill reservoir, played card games and scrabble, shared our blessings, and told stories.

We are tremendously grateful to everyone at Boston College who helped make this a special day.